California People: Construction business updates for February 2018
Bryan Shimoda has been promoted to director of design at Ware Malcomb in the firm’s Irvine, Calif., office. Shimoda has more than 20 years of experience in architectural design. He joined the firm in 2014. Shimoda’s key projects include Riverside University Health System in Moreno Valley, Calif., and Montana Avenue Capital’s Via Real in Carpinteria.
Giovana P. Kuehn has been named senior designer at D L English Design in Los Angeles. Kuehn has more than a decade of international experience and will support the firm’s sustainable design work. Her past designs include retail, hospitality and high-rise residential developments. Kuehn joins the firm after serving as senior designer at CallisonRTKL in Los Angeles. She developed her interior design expertise at Toulouse Lautrec in Lima, Peru, where Kuehn received her bachelor of arts degree in interior architecture.
John Rettig has joined Pond in San Diego as corrosion program manager. He is the first employee hired to expand the company’s corrosion control contracts, business development and construction footprint on the West Coast. Rettig brings experience as a construction and project management expert on large-scale, multi-location, multi-award corrosion protection contracts through the Department of Defense.
Gordon Childress was named executive vice president and general manager in Oakland for Skanska’s Northern California building construction business. Childress has nearly 30 years of experience in the construction industry, including 15 years previously with Skanska. The company has also promoted Caroline Kim to HR director of California in Oakland. Mike Cherry has been promoted to vice president of estimating at Skanska in Riverside, Calif. Cherry joined the company in 2011 and has 33 years of industry experience, ranging from estimating to preconstruction and design development to management.
The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) has appointed Kirk Avila, a leader in toll-road finance and policy management, as the newly created general manager of Express Lanes Programs. Avila, who has successfully managed the SR-91 express lanes for 12 years, will also manage the express lanes program for I-405. Avila began his career with OCTA in 1991, holding finance and administration positions. Lisa Bartlett, the Fifth District supervisor, has been selected as the new chair of OCTA’s board of directors. Bartlett has served as the OCTA board’s vice chair.
Mike Kaiser has joined HDR’s waste sector team as a senior project manager based in the Honolulu office. Before joining HDR, Kaiser was an engineering and environmental consultant in the Southeast. Recent projects include two solid waste disposal facility expansions, management of the gas sales negotiation effort and $5 million in capital improvement projects to support a 19.2-MW landfill gas-to-electrical energy generation facility.
Webcor has promoted Mei Lin Wolff to senior vice president of human resources in San Francisco. Wolff was previously the vice president of human resources and joined the firm in 2015. Webcor’s employee head count has grown by 70% in the three years under Wolff’s leadership. Wolff is a member of the Society for Human Resources Management. Prior to joining Webcor, Wolff served as the senior human resources business partner at NFP, an international insurance brokerage and consulting firm.
